The invention relates to the disposal/treatment of refuse in the form of solid waste material, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for conditioning refuse by the noncombustible shrinking of polyfoam plastic material as one stage in the refuse disposal process.
Over the past 10 years, the quantity and character of household refuse and fast food refuse has changed measurably. The amount of trash generated has increased per person per day and the population has increased by some 30 million people. It is believed that the daily amount of trash for disposal in 1980 has increased by about forty percent (40%), while available disposal space has been decreasing.
The commingled household waste of today contains a very large percentage more of plastics and aluminum than household waste did 10 years ago. The methods for disposal include landfills, incineration and household separation of certain recyclable items with separate pickup for each item being necessary. All three methods are becoming increasingly expensive. In addition, it is very difficult to recycle recyclables in inner city trash by existing methods.
It is particularly desirable to have a method for disposing of and recycling certain municipal solid wastes both safely and economically and in a manner that does not harm the environment. Wastes from various sources including households, fast food restaurants and other commercial establishments including airports, sports arenas and other businesses contain cups and dishes made from polyfoam plastic material. The burning of such polyfoam plastics poses direct problems to the environment from the resulting exhaust gases. In addition, the dumping of such materials at land storage locations also effects the environment in that such plastics are not generally biodegradable and occupy an inordinately greater volume.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to optimize the recycling of certain municipal solid wastes safely and economically without harming the environment.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for the disposal of polyfoam plastic type material including foam cups, dishes and containers.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for preprocessing of polyfoam plastic materials such as foam cups and dishes in order to prepare the refuse for a subsequent sorting processes of recyclable and objectionable inorganics.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a conditioning stage in a waste disposal system which may be included within presently existing solid waste disposable facilities.
It is a further object of the present invention to optimize the recovery of aluminum, steel, plastic, glass, textiles and waste paper by treating the refuse before sorting.
It is an additional object of the present invention to have a method for shrinking polyfoam plastic materials, thus requiring far less volume for an eventual disposal site or for separation and recycling.
It is a further object of the present invention to shrink noncombustibly large volumes of polyfoam material quickly and safely in order to prepare the material for recycling.